Since my papillary thyroid cancer diagnosis over a year ago, I have been on a mission to learn as much as I can about it. It has also become important to me to spread awareness and help others that have been diagnosed or survived cancer. I’ve noticed that the mainstream media often covers the “popular” cancers, but I haven’t heard anything about thyroid cancer. So I was very happy to hear that NBC Nightly News was going to do a segment on the increase of thyroid cancer in women.

I watched the segment and thought it was interesting to hear some of the statistics. This year more than 27,000 women will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer and 10,000 men. The incidences in women have been increasing by an astounding 6.3% per year.

They made mention that the cause of thyroid cancer is still a major medical mystery and why women are more susceptible than men is still unknown. Scientists have long known that radiation can be a cause of thyroid cancer. Studies last week found that CT Scans can give off more radiation than doctors are even aware of. (Well that’s extremely upsetting to learn.)

The good news is that the increase in thyroid cancer is getting noticed and in turn the public is hearing about it more and more. So awareness is spreading and that is hopefully going to cause someone who found a nodule in their neck go to the doctor sooner than later to get it checked.